ARU: A User's Guide
by Pockyvore
Summary: Listen well as I lecture little Romano on how to write China's verbal tic correctly! He doesn't appear to care all that much, but you fanfiction writers are my chosen audience anyway.


**ARU- A User's Guide**

Okay, so I saw one of those posts on Tumblr where people were really, really annoyed about the use of "Aru" in fanfiction. I thought I would appease some tensions here and add some tips of my own because there are a few different ways to play off China's speaking manner, and "Aru" is a valid one (though maybe not the most fluid in English speech). Hey, lil' Romano, get over here! Ask me stuff about _aru_ because you're cute and a good plot device and OW! WHAT THE HELL?

* * *

><p><strong>Hmph. Fine. Why does aru exist, jerk?<strong>

Good. Sit there and look cute while I talk. OK, first off, I would like to point out that _aru_ is not something exclusive to fanfiction. Pretty much all Japanese fanworks include _aru_ at the end of China's sentences where appropriate. Even Tokyopop included it in their official English translation with a sidenote, which I'll get to later. With all this _aru_ around, we can't blame people for using it in their works, especially people who end up trying to translate it other ways and giving up because without it they'd end up making China "speak like Yoda" as one author said.

Tokyopop's little explanation of _aru_ goes along the lines- there are many stories about its origin, but the most popular is this. I'm sure everyone's heard of _desu_ in Japanese speech. It's the verb for "it is" that, unlike in English, goes at the ends of sentences and can apply for all subject pronouns (no I am, You are, it goes for everything). _De aru_ (ﾅ ) is another way of saying _desu,_ though it's less common. Well, it's said that clumsy speakers of Japanese will drop that ﾅ (de) on the front, leaving the _aru_ behind. That's why China always says _aru _at the end of a sentence- while translators will translate "kore wa pen aru" as "This is a pen, aru" and not "This aru pen" for simplicity's sake, the latter is actually the more literal translation. It's just a matter of Japanese word order.

In fact, if you listen to _Tokyo Drift,_ you'll find an instance of _aru. _The lyrics go "They respect and keep it _re-aru_/ Not a China man, 'cause I ain't from China man/ I am a Japan man . . ." which is a pun on the Japanese pronunciation of "real." (Dear Lord, I've wanted to point that out forever.)

* * *

><p><strong>That was too long, you idiot! What do <strong>_**I **_**need to do?**

Well _excuuuse me _for giving a decent explanation. Anyway, you don't necessarily _have_ to drop _aru_ if you don't want to. If you're doing a parody of China (ask blog, crackfic, etc.), I'd call using it however you feel like fine. But if you're not, and you REALLY want to use it, you're going to have to know a little bit of Japanese grammar.

Guidelines for aru usage

Put aru after "X is" statements, such as: "This is a pen." "This is a my favorite wok." "Homestuck can be depressing at times." "It's sunny out."

DON'T PUT ARU after "X isn't" statements: "This isn't a pen." "Big Brother is not watching." "42 isn't the answer to six times nine."

DO NOT PUT ARU in situations where the verb changes out of the present or future (fun fact: the present tense and future tenses in Japanese are the same! Cool beans, huh). Even if "to be" is involved in said tense, like the present progressive ("Prussia's face is bleeding"), Japanese particles like _wa_ and _ga_ take care of the idea of "to be" and the verb takes care of the rest. "Hungary was hitting Prussia with a frying pan yesterday" would not have an _aru_ tacked onto the end because the past tense form is working differently. Same with "Japan took a picture," "Go get the phone for me," or "Please don't feed the squiddles" because of verb changes.

ANOTHER PLACE I WOULDN'T PUT ARU: After a question. While in Japanese, China says stuff like "Kore wa pen **aru ka**?"(Is this a pen?), it looks weird in a quesiton. "Is this a pen, aru?" is a valid translation along these guidelines, so I won't think badly of you if you do use it because to each his own.

ONE MORE PLACE NOT TO PUT ARU: See how many more don'ts there are than dos? Well, Japanese has a different verb for someone having something or something "existing." For example, "I have a pen" and "There are five birds on the telephone line" would not have aru. In fact, some of these WOULD have an aru at the end in Japanese- but using aru on their own in this way is the CORRECT way to say it, so there's no mistake there.

Example paragraph (My apologies to non-HongIce shippers)

"Hong Kong, you are a disgrace to this family, aru," China scolded, holding up the unlit firework. "Stop these shenanigans immediately. They'll throw us out of the hotel. Do you want to be thrown out of the hotel(, aru)? Because I don't."

Hong Kong muttered something under his breath.

"I don't care if Iceland bribed you into doing it. Different families have different rules. Your boyfriend may be a bad influence on you, aru. I will have to have a talk with Norway before I let you go on dates again."

(See how little I used aru there?)

* * *

><p><strong>Wow, who even writes that much? Also, I still hate <strong>_**aru.**_** And your face.**

God, you're such a little punk, aru! I mean... never mind. Anyway, since people with no experience in Japanese may have had a hard time following that, here's an option I'd love to see more people try:

Since _aru_ is the result of people dropping part of "to be," a good English approximation that is also a Chinese stereotype would be leaving any variation of "to be" off at all!

Seriously, that would be hilarious! Hearing China talk like an old Chinese grandma would be funny _and_ pretty accurate. Look at this paragraph again and tell me it isn't way funnier than the last one.

(Also: Take out a, an, the, and plurals to complete the effect. Chinese and Japanese don't have those types of words, so it'll make it sound perfect! Aiya would also sound fantastic.)

Example Paragraph: Take Two

"Aiya! Hong Kong, you disgrace to this family!" China scolded, holding up the unlit firework. "Stop these shenanigan immediately. They'll throw us out of hotel. Do you want to be thrown out of hotel? Because I don't."

Hong Kong muttered something under his breath.

"I don't care if Iceland bribed you into doing it! Different family have different rule. Your boyfriend may be bad influence on you. I will have to have talk with Norway before I let you go on date again."

(OK, that was definitely overdoing it. You should probably tone it down in your writing. But still, read that in your head and tell me it wasn't funny and accurate.)

* * *

><p><strong>A BIG REMINDER: You don't HAVE to make China sound like a bad speaker. He's a smart nation, debatably THE smartest, and he's had over 4,000 years to learn a ton of languages. If you're not comfortable with that speech pattern, don't feel forced to use it. And another big reminder: If he's speaking any Chinese language or dialect thereof, PLEASE WRITE HIM AS A NATURAL SPEAKER because obviously he can speak his own languages!<strong>


End file.
